


Road Trip to Georgia

by LittleRedRoseontheValley (TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns)



Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Georgia, Road Trips, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns/pseuds/LittleRedRoseontheValley
Summary: Drake wants to do something nice for Riley, and so takes her on a road trip down south.
Relationships: Drake Walker/Main Character (The Royal Romance)
Kudos: 10





	Road Trip to Georgia

Drake had been awfully and uncharacteristically excited when he had bound into their shared bedroom, woken her up with a kiss, caffeine and some gentle shoving. It was, after all, quite early, but he knew they had to make good time on the road.

He had woken up early, filled with anxiety and put into action what he had planned out over the last few months. He walked over to the convenience store around the corner from their hotel and gathered everything that he knew they could want.

For every road trip needs its snacks and drinks to keep them going.

He had looked on various maps and guides of the East Coast, planning out where they could stop for an actual meal for lunch and knew roughly how long it would take both with and without traffic. However, junk food was, according to Riley, part of the fun.

She had said during the Social Season that she had always wanted to just get up and jump in the car to go somewhere. “Anywhere, really. It doesn’t even matter. Sometimes I just wanna open up a map and randomly place my finger and go there.”

It was actually why she had jumped on the opportunity to come to Cordonia when Maxwell offered. Growing up with little money, earning minimum wage, she did not own a car, nor had the resources to just take a vacation somewhere. She longed for adventure, for a place far away she did not even know what it was, and in this regard, they were very much alike. The words had echoed in his mind and he could not shake them.

After the end of the Social Season, and with their obligations in Europe coming to a close, Drake asked if Riley wanted to go back to America for a short visit, with the interest of tying up some lose ends. She had accepted it, hoping to pick up some items of sentimental value from her apartment and closing the lease on it.

It was all a ruse, of course. He had not wanted to just pick a random place on the map, like she said, but somewhere he knew they would be comfortable going to, that had some relevance and that was far away enough both to make a long weekend of it and to lose some of the more pesky press that followed them across the Atlantic.

He wanted to do this while he could. Drake’s job at the Attorney’s Office in Cordonia was rather profitable, not to mention his “services” to the Crown, made him want to little in terms of cash, even if he was not in the business of flaunting it. However, their schedules were tight during the year, having little but a month in the Summer off.

He had called by Starbucks on his way to the hotel from the store and grabbed some pastries, breakfast rolls, hot drinks and woken her, trying to bribe her to wake up with a nice breakfast.

“What are you doing?” She had croaked, her voice still thick with sleep and her eyes refusing to open. “Baby, it’s too early. Leave me to sleep.”

“You can sleep in the car if you want, but if we want to stick to the schedule, we’ve got to leave now.”

“Go where?” This had peaked her attention and she couldn’t help but ask.

“Georgia.” He had grinned and circled the drink under her nose, allowing the aroma of it to pull her from her lingering slumber and out of the bed. “Get dressed.”

She looked at him as if he had grown another head. “ _Georgia_? Why Georgia?”

He smirked sideways. “I miss looking at my horses. C’mon, let’s go.”

“You have horses?!” She shouted after him, but he ignored her, giving her space to change, laughing at her frustration.

* * *

Eight in the morning, as Drake had planned, the two of them hopped into the rental car he had procured for the trip and left the mid-range hotel they were staying at and left, heading south.

Riley tried to crowbar some other piece of information out of him, but he was cagey and awfully amused by it, so by the time they reached Delaware, she had already given up, preferring road games he had little taste for, but humoured her all the same.

After they had been on the road for over three hours, Drake decided to pull over at a gas station in Virginia, rumoured to have the best milkshakes in the state. After using the services toilets, the two of them sat by the window, grabbing something else to eat as lunch.

“Sometimes all you need is a greasy burger.” Riley had declared while waving a ketchup covered fry at him.

“Oh, do you?” Drake said, as she nibbled the end of it off and dunked it in his milkshake. “You’re disgusting.”

“Drake, honey, I’m feeding the heart. The heart wants what it wants and right now, it’s French fries in your milkshake. Deal with it.”

“Why can’t it be in yours? It’s the same flavour.”

“Yours tastes better because it’s now forbidden.” She managed to swipe another bit before he moved his glass with a grin. “Thank you for doing this. I’d forgotten I’d said anything about it, but you didn’t. That makes me smile.”

“I’d do anything to see your smile, you should know that by now.”

“Except give me your milkshake for my fries, I see.” She pouted at him. With a roll of his eyes, Drake slid his glass nearer to her again. She grinned and dunked once more. “Losing its appeal now I can have it. I appreciate the gesture though.”

Drake laughed. If anything, even though they would get lost twice when Riley insisted on taking the scenic routes through small villages, spending this time with her will certainly be worth it. It is these times that he will remember. These moments he will remember when he is away, overworked and buried in documents for some stupid thing Liam wants to do, and unable to see her. It is these smiles, jokes and her playfulness that he will miss.

While the early morning was a killer to do, being here and doing this made it worthwhile.


End file.
